West Virginia

We spent Christmas with the Bloods in West Virginia. All seven Blood Brothers were there, but none of the three sisters made it. Altogether it was a pretty good group! We stayed at Stephen and Claudia's house. That meant driving half an hour back and forth to Grandma and Grandpa's house every day, but that was balanced out by nice quiet mornings where we got to sleep in. Most of us had varying degrees of colds, so the extra sleep (and access to Claudia's nyquil supply) was very appreciated. We also got to have late night board games with Stephen. Aaron decided to boycott Blood Rage after one night, but then Stephen got a new game called Puerto Rico to fill the rest of the nights.

Annie was happy to be reunited with her old friend, the flight safety information pamphlet

Angel baby slept 1 hour on the flight out there and 2 hours on the way home (only woke up because Elliot dropped a water bottle on her)

Annie made herself right at home by consuming all the bananas and breaking the snow globe

Our resident epidemiologist taught us the most effective method for sharing germs. I was BLOWN AWAY by Timmy's impressive lung capacity.

Much of the break was spent with the menfolk playing Warcraft on the laptops

The crew after church on Sunday

We went back to the church later that night for a cousin talent show. My kids showcased their ability to take their shoes off and run around distracting everyone. 

On Christmas Eve, we gathered to have the kids act out the Nativity. Dad Blood was the narrator like always. Afterwards he bore his testimony. My father-in-law is such a humble, spiritual man. Sadly, he is also a very soft spoken man and it is always hard to hear him over the kids. 

Elliot was a wise man who spent the whole time insisting he was actually Joseph

Ethan was a superb baby Jesus

And then it was Christmas morning! It is always a bit of a mad scene. They go youngest to oldest, having each kid open all their gifts when it is their turn.

Annabelle LOVES the baby doll from Grandma Blood

Elliot's turn!

We also got to chat with Sister Blood that day! 

Two weeks is a long time to stay cooped up inside, so we went on a few outings. 

There aren't too many parks with old school merry-go-rounds anymore

 We were at the old park when we got a call that they had discovered an awesome brand new park over by the wave pool. This park had it all, including a ninja warrior style obstacle course with a big timer and a 40 yard dash, also with a big timer display. It had sensors underneath the turf that determined the start and stop times. The brothers had an amusing healthy competition.

The obstacle course

Uncle Timmy is the fun one

These things are awesome

She'll be climbing with the rest of them before we know it. In the meantime, she tried her best to saturate herself in cold puddle water. 

Another essential activity: kickball and dodgeball in the church gym

Also a trip to the Clay Center. Props to Claudia for working some coupon magic

Dad Blood was kind enough to take everyone out for dinner while Mom Blood watched all of the kids. We took Annie with us because she's good in restaurants and we worried about her tumbling down the stairs in the chaos at Claudia's house. We also went on an anniversary double date lunch to Thai Valley with Jonny and Megan. 

Annabelle is screaming in this picture because she decided to grab the ice cube in my cup. Letting it go was apparently not an option.

 The last surprise of the trip was that Stephen and Cluadia got a puppy for Christmas! They decided to wait until the day we left to pick it up to minimize the craziness. Probably a good call.

Admiring their new pup

For some reason, they decided it was super fun to lock themselves in the cage? Kids are strange. 

All in all it was a great vacation with some swell people.